MUNICH: A new scanning method involving a transparent mouse could improve how cancer drugs are tested, by picking up tumours previously too small to detect.
Scientists at the Helmholts Munich research centre achieved a groundbreaking discovery by using a transparent mouse to detect minuscule cancerous tumours
For this, researchers rendered a dead mouse and turned it transparent. This research was led by Professor Ali Ertürk. For this technique, they used chemical substances to highlight specific tissues, enabling them to conduct scans with detail and precision.
Professor Erturk said that this technique is important because cancer drugs have to be used in mice before they are tested on humans.
Speaking to British media outlet, Prof Erturk further said, “MRI and PET scans would show you only big tumours. Ours show tumours at the single cell, which they absolutely can’t.”
“Current drugs extend life by a few years and then the cancer comes back. This is because the development process never included eliminating those tiny tumours, which were never visible.”
Prof Ali Erturk worked out how to make a dead mouse transparent in 2018. His team have now used chemicals to highlight specific tissues so that they can be scanned in unprecedented detail.
Normally lab mice are given cancer and scanned with conventional scans to see how the tumour has progressed. They are then treated with the cancer drug being tested and then scanned again to see what if any difference the treatment has had.
Scientists are saying that this technique could revolutionise medical research. Cancer Research UK said the new scanning technique had “a wealth of potential”.
The researchers say the method reveals far greater detail than existing scanning techniques. In one of the first applications, the team has detected cancerous tumours in the first stages of formation.
Prof Erturk’s scanning method can only be used on dead mice, to give a picture of how much cancer has progressed, or whether a treatment has worked. Only a few mice would need to be made transparent to test the effectiveness of the drug.
